Too feel nervous about big dogs and little babies

[findingherfeet]

Disclaimer - I'm not a dog lover or someone who really knows anything about dogs.

Recent bout of Facebook pics or huge dogs snuggling up with teeny babies...everyone commenting how wonderful/amazing it is...is it?? Makes me feel anxious, isn't it a bit dangerous? Just pondering. My friends who post know I'm nervous so keep their dogs away from my baby but just generally wondering.

Dogs aren't predators?! You haven' t met my springer spaniel, who has killed pet rabbits, a pheasant, several prized ornamental game birds (got in a yard full of them), a bantam cock, a hedgehog. That's the ones I know about.
I don't think he'd kill a child, but dogs can see infants as a threat to the pack order, which may have been the problem in the cases of infanticide.

That doesn't make him a predator does it. A hunter. A dog bred by humans to do a specific job, yes. A predator, no.

Also pack theory has been massively disproven.

and you haven't met my 42kg greyhound. Capable of running at 40mph to catch a rabbit in its tracks. Doesn't make him a predator. It makes him a dog bred by people to run quick and catch small furry things.

I'd also question why your dog is so out of your control that it has killed pet rabbits. Mine hasn't.

Some dogs are bred to kill small animals - doesn't mean that every individual will.

Friend has a very docile and well behaved terrier but he had to be kept tied up when there was a guinea pig around. It was caged so I don't think he could have harmed it physically but he kept trying to get to it.

It makes me feel very uncomfortable, my mom and dad have 2 tiny toy breeds and even in excitement and play they are capable of hurting my toddler, and they are tiny.

Some people convince themselves they have an affinity with animals when truly none of us can be 100% sure of their nature or intentions, so leaving things to chance by leaving your newborn or young baby with a dog is mad.

Dogs don't bite without warning - but hardly anyone takes the time to learn about the warning signs that dogs give off. Any decent dog owner checks this out, learns the signs, learns their dogs 'personal' triggers and acts accordingly.

When DD was a baby we had a JRT X mutt who was fabulous with her, but learned very quickly what she liked and disliked, what stressed her out and what solved that stress. She was trained to take herself to her cage/bed and DD was trained to keep away from it. I could have left DD with her without issue.

We did exactly the same with RottDog and The Mutt. It's all part of loving the animal you share your life with and wanting everyone in your 'family' to be safe and happy.

I do the same with the humans in my life - DH and I will never agree on politics and discussions would turn into arguments (although I'm pretty sure he wouldn't bite me!) - so we don't discuss politics and we don't argue about it. My sister has an ear 'phobia' so I don't get close to them or whisper stuff when she is around.

I hate these photos too. I feel the parents are just trying to get a cute pic and not thinking of either the child or the dog.

I think it's utter madness how some people are so relaxed about this issue.

I was only talking to a mother yesterday who was telling me about her two lovely Rottweilers who adore her new baby (who is 7 weeks old) and how when he's on the floor they lie either side of him and rest their heads against him etc etc.

Why the hell would you leave your 7 week old baby in between two dogs and be stupid enough to think the dogs "love him"

My DS is 14 months and when I visit one of my friends, who has some kind if daft, soppy dog, I always ask her put it in the kitchen. My friend is always telling me how lovely the dog is and how he'd never hurt anyone and I think to myself that's fine, but take that risk with your own children, but not mine

Seriously, it's not difficult.

Have children (and adults) been savaged to death by dogs? Yes.

If dogs are removed form the home, can this happen? No.

Job done....

(Admittedly there isn't a great deal you can do about dogs elsewhere)

I'm a dog lover and a dog owner of two dogs and I have a 8 month baby

It's iddioctic to have babies near any dog, selfish and stupid.

Dogs and babies do not mix, I can't stand it when I see things like that and especially when people say oh I trust my dog 100%!

It's a dog, it has animal instinct and it can turn in a spilt second even if it's never shown any aggression ever

I was watching a dog program not that long ago and a dog behaviourist said a baby should never be on the floor of a dog is around , that dog can get to the baby quicker that you can . It matter not of breed or temperament, simply don't do it he said

Very good advice

Our baby is either in my arms if dogs about or in his play room gated off and if baby on floor dogs are gated off in their room.

Yanbu! When dd was a few months old we visited a friend who had an older collie puppy. I wasn't worried about him as my friend is a fantastic dog trainer. Yet before either of us could stop him he playfully nipped dds feet. You know that way puppy's nip, where they don't close their mouth, but still have whatever it is in their mouth? Dd was absolutely fine, but it put a real fear into me and my friend. It's that easy for something to go wrong.

I have two german shepherds. They are both fantastic around children, cats, adults and other dogs however I would never leave them unsupervised around a baby or small child. I can read the signs of them being stressed, a baby can't. They both lived with young children for a while and I made sure they were seperate unless I was there. They play rough and could easily knock someone small over without meaning too.

I think babies and dogs should be closely supervised but there is no reason they can't live alongside eachother if people are sensible.

Some parents don't have a clue. I once took the dogs to an event (a dog friendly one!) and they were both lying down beside me on leads and egnoring everyone. I turned around and found a child of around 2 sitting on my 55kg dog as if he was a pony, no adult in sight. Parent turned up eventually and thought it was hillarious- this type of situation makes me understand why dogs bite!

It's not necessarily big dogs that cause this problem - small dogs are an issue too. I'm more comfortable with our 2 large Rottweilers than my friends unpredictable collie or my sisters babied spaniel. Think the problem is owners who think there is no problem.

I like dogs. I think most dogs are dependent on their training. Good owner = generally a good dog.

I'd never, ever leave a dog unsupervised with a baby. Or a child.

A family member was recently savaged by a pet dog that was one of these 'wouldn't hurt a fly, ooooh, he's so good with kids' dogs. Needed 42 stitches. If he hadn't been a fully grown man and if several people hadn't come to his aid, the dog would have killed him (it weighs considerably more than I do.) The dog was well trained, well socialised and wasn't being provoked. To this day we don't know why it snapped.

Oddly enough, they no longer have a dogs, and no longer rubbish people who admit to being a tad nervous around a 60kg dog.

You never think it'll happen to you, until it does.

Hate those kind of pics, they make me shudder.

My (smallish) dog is as soft as butter, gun dog so the gentlest mouth, and she adores the toddlers in the family. She's still never been allowed near them without me in the room with her, watching and within reach, and she won't be until they're old enough to be a lot bigger than her and trusted to be sensible with dogs. If I don't have the freedom to concentrate on her she goes in her crate in another room. At the moment the kids are going through a pull ears/poke/kick her a bit exploring phase with her given a quarter of a chance, and it only takes either them or the dog to make a split second mistake and the outcome doesn't bear thinking about. Not a risk I ever plan on taking, any more than I'd let the toddlers hang around an open fire or a swimming pool edge out of my sight.

I have had to be ridiculously firm with a couple of other family members about not turning the dog loose with the kids when my back's turned, and despite all my efforts when the kids were babies, they kept putting the dog in the room with the baby on the floor to 'show it' but holding the dog back who was very young at this point, and letting her get frantic with excitement at this fascinating thing she couldn't get to, and leaving baby toys and nappies all over the floor and then constantly going on at the dog and taking them away when she naturally picked them up, so that she got fixated on the babies as something wildly exciting when I was trying to train her to see them as part of the furniture and nothing to do with her. She still goes nuts with excitement at the sight of them as a result of this training which is another reason I'm very strict about her being around them and have managed a culture of the kids ignoring her and seeing her as part of the furniture instead of a toy to focus on. Again battling off elder relatives "let's stroke the doggie!" which is well meaning thoughtlessness but really not sensible.

The trouble is some adults find it terribly cute until the second it goes wrong.

I don't think yabu about the Facebook thing. It's cute and there are a lot of stupid dog owners with badly trained dogs and could be a very bad combination.

But it depends on the dog and the children and the parents. My childhood dog (rough collie) would have never, ever hurt me or my sisters or anyone else, supervised by adults or not, probably whatever we did to her. She was the kind of dog even people who were scared of dogs liked within reason (I had a good friend who was scared to death of dogs, but liked ours, albeit at a safe distance).

The dogs I had as a teenager (border collies), not so much. They were lovely dogs. I trusted them with my pfb, but I would not have left them alone with DS.

nornironrock so you think people should get rid of their dogs if they have children?

You haven' t met my springer spaniel, who has killed pet rabbits, a pheasant, several prized ornamental game birds (got in a yard full of them), a bantam cock, a hedgehog.

What the fuck? You seriously need to learn to control your dog, or rehome him to someone who can. A dog should never be in a situation where it can attack and kill someone's pet rabbit. Absolutely disgusting behaviour from the owner.

Erm... I can't quite decide my answer to this

I think maybe it's easy to say "it makes me uncomfortable, it's dangerous etc" if you've not had a GSD
Seriously though, I used to leave my baby snuggled up happily in my GSD's tummy - they both loved it. The bond was unbelievable (still is), I trusted her implicitly (still do) and maybe I'll get flamed for it but I did, it's hard to explain the level of trust if you haven't experienced it.

As a side note, I don't trust any dog around my DC, just my GSD.

I like how everyone always blames the dog when it snaps. Kids can be little shits when your back is turned and tease the dog by pulling it's tail/ear/sitting on it's back and the dog snaps. It's not so much the dog that's the problem, it's kids/people winding the bloody thing up.

I have to agree DirtyKnickers, if kids aren't taught boundaries at a young age animals become play things, not something to be respected and gentle with.

I have two toddlers and two dogs and whilst they are all the best of friends and my son has a very close bond with one of the dogs I don't leave them alone together, I'm rigid about any form of teasing, and I know my dogs signs. Whilst I trust my female almost implicitly, I don't trust the male as he suffers from anxiety (we were broken into at our last house and the shithead who broke in kicked him). Dog stress signs are often really subtle like yawning a lot or averting their gaze / fidgeting a bit. Now that the kids are a bit older I'm slightly less rigorous, I will for instance go to the loo and leave them in the lounge all watching tv if the kids are engrossed and on the sofa and utterly ignoring the dogs but if it's for More than a minute or two really, the dogs are moved to another area. This is for the dogs more than the kids as the kids very occasionally try to pull them about, and get very short shrift in this regard.

But newborns or any child under a year I wouldn't entertain within close proximity of a dog, I just wouldn't, and I was anal about it when mine were tiny. I always put the dogs in a separate area when anyone comes over with kids, for a start it's easier, and frankly some kids are very scared off dogs and it isn't fair on the kids visiting or the dogs being screamed at by hysterical children.

I sure as hell wouldn't let a newborn near any animal, dog or cat, so no, YANBU.

It is very important that you learn about dogs because they are everywhere.

Firstly the size of the dog is irrelevant. Just because a dog is large does not necessarily mean it is aggressive and equally a small dog is perfectly capable of, sadly, killing a baby.

Secondly, all dogs should be supervised around children by someone who understands dog behaviour. This latter bit is crucial. A lot of the photos on FB show dogs that are clearly uncomfortable and it is a huge problem that whoever took the photo did not notice the warning signs. If you do a search on here there was a thread recently listing the main signs of stress in dogs.

Thirdly, it is equally important to educate DCs about dogs. They must learn how to approach a dog safely, to respect a dog's decision to refuse to be stroked and to avoid kissing or cuddling dogs.

Some dogs are absolutely wonderful with babies and Young DCs but you have to be quite experienced to identify these dogs and you should supervise all interactions anyway.